Swedish Actress Also Says She’s Happy David Fincher Went With An Unknown For His Version Of ‘Dragon Tattoo’

Noomi Rapace. She’s everywhere. The hottest thing out of Sweden since IKEA, Volvo and Björn Borg. Ever since her icy, steely turn as Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish tele-version of “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” she’s swept up every female role in Hollywood remotely resembling someone gorgeous, but with grit and mettle, right?

While she does have a gig in Stefan Ruzowitzky‘s vampire drama “The Last Voyage of Demeter,” (he directed the Academy Award-winning foreign drama “The Counterfeiters” so we have high hopes) alongside Ben Kingsley, every other job is still evidently in the conversation stage.

Truthfully since Hollywood is lacking in tough, sexy female leads (god forbid you’re just tough), Rapace would be the perfect lead for Ridley Scott‘s “Alien” prequel, but it’s doubtful 20th Century Fox will entrust an “unknown” like her in what is turning out to be a very expensive tent pole; especially since there are apparently so many other female characters in the picture.

We’re of the thinking she’ll eventually land some role in the horror/drama (while rumored front runner Natalie Portman did do tough well in “V For Vendetta” and looks to have accomplished the same in the upcoming, “Your Highness,” she still seems too petite to play the surrogate Ripley heroine in our minds), in recent press interviews for “The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest,” Rapace says nothing is set in stone and she’s only had preliminary meetings with Scott.

“I would love to work with Ridley, but there’s so many rumors,” she told Moviefone. “I’ve read a lot of things about me in the paper and gone, oh really? Okay! Yeah – I didn’t know that! But I’ve met him a couple of times, and it’s amazing for me, but he’s said he’s a big fan of my work, and I’m a really big fan of his work so I would love to work with him. But we’ll see.”

As for her role in ‘Sherlock 2,’ the actress plays a French Gypsy, and she recently described her character and her in-depth preparations for the role (honey, it’s just a fun tentpole, chill). If early set photos are to be believed, Rachel McAdams is not in the cast as once reported, apparently too busy hanging out with her boyfriend Michael Sheen; though arguably, her scenes could come later).

“I’m doing a lot of research about gypsies,” she told Cinematical. “I’m going to Paris to visit some gypsy camps, and I’m going to Transylvania to actually see how they live. Because the gypsies are so poor, they live pretty much the same as they did then, and they keep in the traditions and all of that, so when you go to Transylvania, for example, they live pretty close to the way they lived hundreds of years ago. So I’m listening to gypsy music and I’m learning to sing and dance.”

Lastly, about David Fincher‘s English-Language remake of “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo,” which didn’t even wait for the cultural corpse to get cold, and started production before the final film in the Swedish trilogy hit screens, this Friday, read our review), Rapace is just happy the Lisbeth Salander hacker role went with an unknown in the role (Rooney Mara from “The Social Network“) instead of Julia Roberts or some Hollywood superstar.

“I don’t know her,” she admitted to the L.A. Times, “[But] I think that David Fincher is a great filmmaker, and he probably made a good choice…. I don’t think that people should ever know so much about an actor that they go into the theater and can’t see the character.”

Rapace’s “The Last Voyage of Demeter” will likely shoot next year after “Sherlock Holmes 2” wraps (it’s due December 2011). She’s also been in early discussions to star alongside Jeremy Renner in Tommy Wirkola‘s modern/dark take on “Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, ” which is being exec produced by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay who were both taken with the German Norwegian director’s comedic and inventive Nazi zombies picture, “Dead Snow.”